The present invention relates to control of industrial power networks of the type including a plurality of generators and one or more motors, and connected to receive additional power from a utility.
In industrial systems of this type, it is the usual practice to adjust the real power produced by each generator in order to optimize the real power generation assignments of the system. The reactive power to be produced by each generator and each motor is determined individually for each machine in accordance with the operating characteristics of that machine and the loads connected to the same bus as that machine. However, because of the power flows within the network, it will frequently occur that the distribution of reactive power within the network will not be optimum, with the result that reactive power will be drawn from the utility, resulting in the assessment of a reactive power consumption penalty by the utility.
In addition, the system operating cost is influenced by deviations of load bus voltages from their assigned values and by operation of a transformer beyond its rated capacity or operation of a machine outside of its reactive capability.